East Indian Simple Salad – Sliced Onion, Tomato, Cucumber

This quick and easy East Indian salad is called an Onion Tomato Cucumber Salad — onion, tomato, and cucumber sliced into rounds, not diced. Ready in minutes and cooling, especially in Mumbai’s hot weather.

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Everyone loves a tasty salad along with their meal on any day. And when it’s simple and easy, even better!

This one’s easy, just cut stuff and cover with salt and pepper. I wouldn’t even call it a salad, but that’s what it’s traditionally called – the East Indian Simple Salad.

Plain rice and moong dal with sorpotel, or jeera rice and a tasty mutton lonvas, or haldi rice with fried kingfish and masoor dal; are just some of the options that this traditional cucumber onion tomato salad can be paired with.

Ingredients for the Tomato Cucumber Onions Salad?

All you need is a few tomatoes and cucumbers, and some onions, red or white. Red onions have more zing than white, so pick whatever style you prefer. Pepper powder and a little bit of salt make this salad all it is.

How To Make East Indian Simple Salad?

Slice the onions into rings, and the tomatoes into thin round slices. Traditionally, they’re only arranged in a circular format or a parallel format. I know, we’re very particular about the strangest things.

For the circular format, start with any veggie – for example, it’s a layer of cucumber, followed by a layer of tomato, followed by a layer of onions, and so on.

For the parallel format, it’s tomato cucumber onion in one row, cucumber onion tomato in the second, and onion tomato cucumber in the third. And this continues, just like singing different verses of ‘row your boat’ in primary school. Remember?

Sprinkle a little pepper powder and salt on top; and your onion cucumber tomato side salad is ready!

Cooking Notes

• Crushed ground pepper can also work in place of pepper powder.
• You can use either 3 white or 2 red onions.
• This salad can be served with lemon wedges.
• This is a simple ethnic East Indian salad. It’s usually eaten in very small quantities like we do aachar or pickle. For more unique recipes, refer to my cookbooks.

What Other Salad Recipes Should I Try?

• Kachumber (not cucumber) Salad
• Pink Guava Salad
• Boiled Egg Salad
• Sirke Wala Pyaaz (Indian pickled onions)
• Raw Mango Kadmat Salad
• Russian salad with canapes

Other Posts you might like

• Raw Mango Salad
• Refreshing Pink Guava Salad
• Chicken Tope
• Boiled Egg Salad
• Quick and Easy Indian Purple Yam